An update from Kurt Kandler, our Executive Director:
Our Relief teams are hard at work and making a huge impact in our communities. Last week, three medical teams saw over 2,000 patients. Cleanup and construction teams are working to prepare plots to rebuild. Last week, a cleanup team cleared an area along the shore, and had church on the beach with the community — the first time they’ve had church since Hurricane Matthew hit about a month ago. This was tremendously encouraging to the community.
We’re working with our friends at Hope for Haiti to file a request with OCHA to mobilize equipment to get the JP crews to Morency to repair the road. Morency is still inaccessible, as the road washed away last week.
We’re happy to share that we’re partnering with Samaritan’s Purse to distribute relief supplies. Samaritan’s Purse supplied 5,000 tarps in the Chardonnieres area. Some of those tarps went to Kalapa. They’re also going to supply 500 water filters, 500 hygiene kits, and 100 more tarps which we’ll distribute, primarily in Morency.
1,400+ ShelterKits and 2,000 non food items (NFI’s) like water filters and solar lights, were scheduled to arrive in Haiti on Saturday. Tomorrow is a government holiday, so if they don’t clear customs today, they should clear on Wednesday. Our Relief teams will help bundle and distribute these supplies to our communities this week.
MEBSH (Mission Evangelique Baptiste du Sud d’Haiti) worked with us to coordinate food distribution to Figuier late last week.
We met with IsraelAID, who has water and sanitation relief expertise. They were searching for areas to deploy resources, and we were able to direct them to Maniche, where they went on Friday.
Part of our strategy is to be proactive about the anticipated food shortage, as many crops and livestock were washed away. Farmers in our communities need to plant seeds quickly in order to get a harvest this season. Some seeds have been distributed, but securing a good source of seeds continues to be a challenge. Importing seeds to Haiti quickly is problematic. We’re working with a number of organizations to help us secure seeds.
We’re continuing to work closely with our water partner, Water Mission International. Temporary systems are expected to be operational in Kalapa (and maybe Figuier) “as soon as feasible.” We expect to transition those systems to permanent systems in February.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support as our friends in Haiti walk the long, hard road to restoring their communities. We’re grateful for you.
